Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-07-01

that d;raa. on infantry ever went so far in
ns sue u,aection as did Hunters. He fouph1
str successful battle up at Piedmont. de-
matsr;a, I greas deal OF the enemy's wa,
Rine R;d pushed through the gaps of the
bnro TSe' ana sat down before Lynch
cess, SO far, but it had reached The end " VI
its rope. This little army was far e Of y; y,
.ne very heart of the Confederacv. With
Nighmond between it and Washinotan
M n,.nou9 any base, and without supplies. III
nun.er could have taken Lynchbnro, ha
| could not have held it; he would have bean
I overwhelmed by detachments from Lees
army. But he could not take Lvnchhnrn.
~ was heavily REINFORCED by railroad the
sums gay that he invested it, He fonnd +
necessary to retreat. ~
Due When he came to look for line of
IWe s, he discovered that the Shenandoah
,u,ey was barred to him. General Early.
w., en seventeen thousand men, had crossed
ing 70 give HIM battle should he come that
way. --0 No-4t0 ''1"'
Gut OF ammunition, out of supplies of
a Mi Kinds, Hunter was in no shape to fight.
me question with him was not whether he
| could whip Early's fresh army; it was.
whether he could save his own.
he did the latter, by probably the onlv
| course open to him. He made wide de-.
tour away west into the mountains of West
Virginia, retreating hundreds of miles
tnrough the kanawha Valley, and finally
~ me ohlo River, and the Baltimore and
onlo Kallsoad, to the Upper Potomac. It
was hard' painful march, and his men
! s11sesa al everything from fatisue and hun
ger. u course, this army was not of the
sllghtest use in covering Washington.
While EARLY was crossing the Potomac.
Hunter was ascending the Ohio and de-
scendlng the khnawha, on his long back
door route home.
And now General Lee saw his chance.
and promptly seized it.
For once. the Shenandoah Valley was
entirely clear OF Union troops, except some
insignificant garrisons at Martinsburg and
Harpers Ferry. There was no army
Whatever covering Washington by this
route; there was nothing to defend it but
us own garrison, which was not equal to
an attack in great force. Never had there
been such an opportunity to relieve Rich
mon %ond and Petersburg by threatening
his foot cavalry" the length of the valley.
to the Potomac; then he would be in rear
OF Washington, and by rapid march
might seize it.
Inc scheme was dazzling one for the
Confederacy, and it came perilously near
to success.
Let us now follow Early's march on
Washington for about seven DAYS.
On the 9th of June he was at Staunton:
On the I'd of July at Winchester, sending
MS cavalry to raid and break up the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad, and destroy Gov.
eminent or stores. The Union forces at
Martlnsburg and other points retired into
maryland, after some sharp fighting, and
on July 5 Early crossed the Potomac at
Shepherdstown.
The straneest part of this affair is the
sublime confidence that General Halleck
and Secretary Stanton felt and expressed
mat Washington was in no danger. Neither
OF them could be made to believe that a
Confederate army was in Maryland, until
the fact was plain to everybody.
They might have learned the truth
week earlier than they did had they be.
lleved the reports which General Sigel sent
them from about Harper's Ferry. But
they had no confidence at all in the dis
patches that announced that the enemy was
near the Potomac in force.
No doubt General Grants assurances that
General Lee had not detached any part of
his army, caused the Washington people to
feel secure
Grant was wofully misled by his "Secret
Service" an institution of so-called spies"
and scouts, which proved upon other oc-
casions than this that it was an arrant
humbug.
On the night of July3 Granttelegraphed
to, Washington: "Early's corps is now
here"
On that day., Early was fighting at and
occupying Martinsburg, two hundred miles
off!
On the 5th of July, Secretary Stanton
complacently wrote to Governor Curtin:
some of the partisan robbers that infest
that region"
On that day Earlys army was crossing
the Potomac into Maryland
And just about this time Grant became
convinced by what he heard from Mary
land-not by ANYTHING his "Secret Service"
told him-that the enemy was across the
Potomac in force. He dispatched di-
vision of the Sixth Corps to Baltimore by
boats.
1t reached there just in time to go out
with the other troops that were at Balti-
more, the whole not making more than six
thousand, under General Lew Wallace, and
meet Early's army on it's way to Washing
ton, at Monocacy Junction, near Frederick. |
A desperate and bloody battle followed. !
AA0 SAAO4 AOAScS WC4o OutuuuOG1tu IuIGG |
to one, and defeat was certain; but the sac
rifice there made saved Washington. 1t
put back Early's advance one golden day.
Without that one days grace Washington
would have surely fallen!
The battle of Monocacy occurred July
9th. Wallace. with the remains of his |
force, fell back on Baltimore, and Early
swooped down on Washington. His cav
airy had passed clear around Baltimore,
cutting the railroads and capturing trains.
We left Early's army in front of Wash
ington, coming down upon it from the
north. A dash past the forts, if attempted
soon enough, would have cost much blood;
but it would have been successful.
1t was now July 18th. Some important
things had been happening.
On the night of the battle Of Monocacy,
the astounding news went to City Point by
telegraph. Grant instantly ordered the two
remaining divisions of the Sixth Corps to
march to the Point, and embark for Wash
ington.
By daylight of the 10th, they were steam
ing down the James. And Earlys cavalry
was even then in sight of the dome Of the
Capitol. And New York, Baltimore, Phila-
delphia, did not know for whole days what
flag was flying over Washington!
1o,,& ,,o,r, otbor Tyn;or froo,,e uoro 20 p;d1y